Environment
From "Maple Street Co-op News", February/March 2008

The Eden Project: where idealism meets reality

By Dawn Goddard, Co-op Member

The Greenhouse at the recent Woodford Folk Festival hosted a little talk called "The Edge" presented by a group from the UK with some very big ideas. The Edge (more about that later), is the latest design plan to come out of the Eden Project Ltd, a registered educational charitable trust with a vision: a unique and inspiring meeting place of science, art, architecture, and sustainability.

The Eden Project was born in what was, until 1999, the old Bodelva Clay Pit in Cornwall, a huge and sterile scar on the landscape that I used to gawk at when, as a child, we drove past on our annual camping excursions to the rugged Cornish coast.

Nowadays, the 60-metre-deep pit looks like some (very green thumbed) aliens have taken up residence, with the installation of the two largest conservatories (covered biomes) in the world. These are constructed with a double-layered steel curved space frame in a hex-tri-hex configuration (lots of hexagons pieced together). Each hexagon is fitted with transparent foil 'windows' made from three layers of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (EFTE) in inflated, two-metre-deep pillows. EFTE was chosen for its longevity, toughness, weight (less than one per cent of the weight of glass), and its ability to transmit ultraviolet light.

Eden is comprised of the biomes, along with other iconic architecture such as the three-storey 'Core' educational building (the copper roof harvests solar energy in a design based on the Fibonacci spiral and, possibly, an echidna), and 15 hectares of wildly creatively revegetated land (the outdoor biome), designed by a leading UK environmental planning and design team.

Eden describes itself as a "living theatre of people and plants, dedicated to the appreciation and study of human dependence on plants". The biomes contain over 5,000 species and one million plants. The Humid Tropics Biome (50 metres high and 100 metres wide by 240 metres long), houses plants and crops from tropical environments and rainforests, including Malaysia, West Africa, tropical South America and other tropical islands. Bananas are gown alongside coffee, balsa, mahogany, bromeliads, spices and tropical ferns, to name but a few.

The slightly less gargantuan biome (35 metres high by 140 metres long) houses the warm temperate Mediterranean zone. It showcases, amongst others: citrus, olives, herbs and vines from Europe, proteas and aloes from South Africa, Californian annuals and shrubs of the Chaparral.

The pioneering team, led by chief executive Tim Smit, with help from Reading University, manufactured an astonishing 85,000 tonnes of soil made from China clay and composted waste to give life to the barren expanse.

The Project was funded from a mixture of UK government and European Union grants, commercial loans and donations - and quite amazingly, two massive UK construction companies (Sir Robert McAlpine and Alfred McAlpine), who worked for free for 18 months and provided large loans to complete the initial stages and get the centre opened by March 2001.

Sustainability science with a heart & soul
As impressive as the biomes are, what really excites me is the deep sociology of the Project. The Eden Trust's 2006/07 Annual Review reveals an inspiring commitment to presenting the need for environmental care to the widest possible audience; that is, all sections of society. The Eden Project sees itself unashamedly inspiring love and awe for the earth and its environments, rather than fear and guilt. Its aim is to inform as many people as possible on the complex, interrelated themes of significance for the 21st century, such as climate change and energy, food, nutrition, health and well-being, biodiversity and natural resources.

The Review outlines identified barriers to proactive environmental engagement that most people experience, such as overwhelm due to the scale of environmental challenges, confusion over complex issues, lack of knowledge of which actions are really effective, and lack of vision of a positive route forward. The Project means to tackle these barriers to change via education programs, by operational practice and through partnerships and outreach - and by doing all of this in ways that address social and economic concerns alongside the environmental challenge.

How on earth can a not-for-profit achieve any and all of this? By capturing the hearts and imaginations of the nearly nine million visitors who have attended the Project since it opened seven years ago. One partner the Eden Project has (amongst many) is Cape Farewell, a charity headed by artist David Buckland, that takes artists, scientists and educators together on a 100-year-old schooner to the High Arctic. They take the 78th parallel route to eastern Greenland, a passage only made possible because of melting sea ice. They then bring back exquisite imagery and go on to create educative and stunning art installations to be shown back at Eden and elsewhere. The method of using a multi-media approach, (which includes literature, journalism, sculpture, painting, music, dance etc) to explore climate change, provides the educators with many new possibilities for incorporating the complex topic into school syllabi.

The whole Eden site is littered inside and out with art of the fantastic and the unusual kind; the work of over 60 artists is permanently on display. One example, an exhibit in the Core, which combines art and science to both instruct and entertain, is 'The Plant Engine' by Will Jackson's Engineered Arts.
It is a large transparent sphere that contains tall, fast-growing tobacco plants connected by pipes to a series of surrounding puppet automata, each in individual glass casings. As the plants photosynthesise with light from a very large overhead lamp, the oxygen produced is 'fed' to the surrounding casings via the pipes, which animates the puppets, giving them 'life', cleverly illustrating human dependence on plants.

A team of public performers known as the Pollinators are employed as tour guides and storytellers, bringing the stories behind the plants and exhibits to life with humour and whimsy.

The site hosts 'Eden Sessions' throughout the summer, with some of the world's best performers doing their thing against the backdrop of the biomes lit up at night. Musician Peter Gabriel reckons it is the most spectacular place to see a band!

An all-inclusive ideal
A partnership between Eden and UK organisation the Sensory Trust has ensured that the Core educational building was designed and constructed with inclusive principals in mind. (The mission of the Sensory Trust is to make public places and gardens accessible for all, particularly the ten million disabled and elderly. To the seven million or so people in the UK who do not possess basic literary skills, they wish to encourage interaction and richness across a range of senses.)

The Sensory Trust worked with Eden to design a comprehensive system of signage for exhibits throughout the site utilising the Widgit Rebus Symbols (a set of over 6,000 symbols). In the Humid Tropical Biome there is a boat filled with growing coffee plants. On the side of the boat, carved entirely in symbols into wood, is the story of coffee, from plant to production to cafe.

As part of its educational program, in 2006 Eden supported a training course for Architects Sans Frontiers. The summer school gave young and aspiring architects and engineers the challenge to develop their own accommodation from piles of waste - not unlike the realities that face Third World communities. The task required creative use of scarce resources and participants quickly learned of the need for collaboration, negotiation and trade. The summer school was so well received it is now a permanent fixture at Eden.

'Gardens For Life' is a wonderful Eden educational project that supports and links children, teachers, schools and communities on three continents (the UK, India and Africa) around the theme of food production, food education and global citizenship. The children grow food in old tyres, on rooftops and in urban environments, providing much needed healthy nutrition for many. At the Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan, they are feeding their fruit trees precious water via intravenous drips! The children then share their experiences, artworks, and recipes using sophisticated IT. The three-year pilot program has been a great success, widely impacting on the lives of the children and their communities, and is set to expand quickly around the globe. Building partnerships between schools locally, nationally and internationally, is seen as a crucial foundation for a sustainable future.

In its operations, Eden is doing things in style, with its Waste Neutral scheme. The weight of recycled materials bought on site is now equal to the weight of material sent for recycling and disposal, and operations are now considered waste neutral. To aid in this effort, Eden has installed the Neter 30 biodigester (one of only three in the world), a shipping container-sized waste composter designed in Sweden. The giant biodigester 'eats' over 2.5 tonnes of food scraps that are left over every week at the cafes and restaurants at Eden, producing nutrient-rich plant food for use in the biomes.

Rainwater is harvested and used along with groundwater for much of the site's water needs. The electricity used is Green Tariff (there are six wind farms in Cornwall), and the vast majority of consumables and products used on-site are sourced locally. They are contributing enormously to the local economy.

Eden is forging ahead, making partnerships at every turn, and by taking a positive, inclusive and transparent attitude towards individuals and corporations, it is doing its bit to foster a sustainable future and to change the way business is being done.

A not-for-profit organisation, the Post Mining Alliance, has sprung from Eden, promoting the regeneration of mine sites for the sustainable benefit of local communities and environments, and initiating international best practice systems for integrated mine closure.

The Eden team is planning to evolve into its next phase with the 'Edge', as presented at the Woodford Folk Festival. This is a dry arid biome built of recycled china clay waste and with an EFTE roof resembling swirling desert dunes, containing a desert, an oasis and water gardens. It is designed to be sustainable in construction and use and to have the lowest possible carbon 'footprint' that incorporates the best of current technology.

Tim Smit sees the Edge as an endeavour to re-ignite humanity's inventive spirit, as a place to ask how we might conduct ourselves in the future, asking where our collective creativity and imagination is. Where is the best of us? It seems some of the answers may be found in Eden.

Sources: www.edenproject.com; www.sensorytrust.org

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", February/March 2008; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@ serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]